“Take care of yourself, girl. Don’t be a stranger.”
“Madison—”
“Helen, leave the girl be. You heard her. She can’t do it. We’ll be fine.”
The three Drakes exchanged looks in a silent communication that excluded Madison. “Well...goodbye and good luck.”
She bolted from the house, ignoring the rushed jumble of voices in the kitchen behind her. She didn’t slow until she’d climbed into the cab and closed the door. With her heart still pounding she turned the key and the engine protested. “Not now. Come on.”
She tried again. Crawling inside to ask for help was unpalatable. Bile crept up her throat. It took two more attempts before the motor caught. Eager to get down the road before she pulled over and emptied her stomach, she shoved the gear lever into Reverse.
A bang on the window scared her heart into a stall. Helen, her face without a smidgeon of color, stood outside the door. Desperation gleamed in her eyes. Madison gulped down her rising nausea and reluctantly hit the button to lower the glass.
“Danny made us promise not to say anything, but I can’t let you drive away when your actions could mean the difference between his life and death. You have to help, Madison. He has a sixty percent better chance of beating the cancer if he has the tumor surgically removed, then follows up with chemo. He refuses to have the procedure unless you agree to run the practice while he’s recuperating. He’s more worried about what will happen to his patients without him than he is about what I’ll do if he doesn’t—” A sob choked off her words.
An urgent need to run crawled over Madison’s flesh. “Helen, I can’t.”
Her former mother-in-law’s cheeks flushed dark red and a white line formed around her lips. Fury filled her eyes. “I will not let you do this to me again. I refuse to sit by and watch someone else I love slip away from me because of your actions.” Tears streamed down her cheeks and her breath came in snatched pants. Her entire body shook. “Can you live with another Drake death on your conscience? You have to come back for Danny. You owe us. You owe me, damn you, Madison Drake.”
Monroe. Not Drake. Madison didn’t correct her.
A chill started at Madison’s core and splintered outward like frost until even her fingers and toes felt frozen. She reached out a hand to console her mother-in-law, but Helen recoiled. “Don’t touch me.”
Madison winced at the fresh stab of pain. They’d once been so close.
Madison debated telling Helen the truth about Andrew. If she did, Helen would understand why Madison couldn’t revisit the past and the office they had once shared. She opened her mouth, then her conscience slammed the door on her escape route.
Do no harm. It was more than a professional oath. It was a way of life.
She pressed her dry lips together, leaving the damning words unsaid. She couldn’t destroy a mother’s memories of her son by telling her what a manipulative, deceitful bastard he’d been.
Helen was right. Madison would never forgive herself if her actions caused another fatality. She owed the Drakes for the kindness they’d shown her. But mostly, she owed Danny for the practical, old-school lessons he’d taught her.
Resignation settled heavily on her chest, crushing her lungs. Head spinning, she gulped and battled for air and an alternative. None came.
“I’ll do it.”
But she’d come back on her terms.
Carefully setting boundaries was the only way to protect herself, her sanity and the practice that had become her life. She wouldn’t get emotionally attached to this family a second time. And once she’d done her duty, she’d go home and try to find the peace in her life again.
Copyright © 2014 by Emilie Rose Cunningham
ISBN-13: 9781460327869
ALL A MAN IS
Copyright © 2014 by Janice Kay Johnson
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